Many are surprised that, even now, Pashinyan remains committed to the aggressive style, inflammatory rhetoric, and hate speech that characterized his election campaign. After all, he has ostensibly won—or at least that is how he sees it. Yet, instead of showing magnanimity and calling for solidarity and national unity in an increasingly polarized society, he once again threatens to “crush,” “imprison,” and “dispossess” his political opponents—or, in his own terminology, the “three-headed party of war.” Meanwhile, prominent, young, and promising figures continue to be sent to prison on fabricated charges.
In reality, expecting kindness or statesmanship from Pashinyan is futile. Eight years have been more than enough to reach that conclusion. Today, he appears more embittered than ever because, deep down, he knows that he was not genuinely elected on June 7. In other words, he failed to receive the number of legitimate votes he had desperately sought. Even according to the official results, which critics claim were manipulated in his favor through significant irregularities, he failed to surpass the 50 percent-plus-one threshold. Even the alleged transfer of approximately 60,000 votes from “Prosperous Armenia” and the unprecedented exclusion of Gagik Tsarukyan from the National Assembly proved insufficient to achieve that goal.
Pashinyan, who appears far more inclined toward launching another revolution, would do well to remove the mask of a fake democrat and a fake patriot, because the public exposed him long ago as a man lacking patriotism, marked by hypocrisy, and driven by authoritarian instincts. It is particularly ironic that he now attempts to portray himself as a crusader against vote-buying, for in that arena he has no equal. Was it not Pashinyan himself who, on the eve of the June 7 elections, suddenly decided to raise pensions and social benefits, introduce a universal health insurance system, and announce other costly social initiatives? Armenia has never before witnessed such a large-scale distribution of what critics describe as electoral bribes.
“I unequivocally demand that anyone caught giving or taking electoral bribes must remain in prison until the results of the next nationwide elections have been officially finalized,” Pashinyan declared a few days ago. Yes, indeed—you understood correctly. It was none other than Mr. Nikol Pashinyan himself.
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Read more at “Hayatsk Yerevanits” Journal
ACNIS reView from Yerevan #26, 2026 of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies
